3 times Bette was afraid to touch Barry and the one time she wasn't
by ArtemisBAMF1218
Summary: Bette survived the explosion so Barry helps her readjust to the world. Whilst Bette developes some feelings for the scarlet speedster.


**Obvious AU where Bette is still alive. I felt that there was some potential with her so here it is.**

Their was a loud crash bang, but Bette didn't even look up.  
Probably another brawl between the new recruits. No one wanted to use  
the tazer less they accidentally shock themselves when she tried to  
head butt them.  
It had been days since she been in the normal world, and she was  
slowly accepting this was what her life was going to be like until she  
died or until she gave in.  
She had been dead for precisely a day before returning back to life.  
According to Eiling, she had been shot and blown up. But with the help  
of a man named Savage, they connected to a group called the Time  
Masters and hired the Pilgrim.  
The Pilgrim was a woman able to stop time, another meta-human of some  
sort, and she went to the split second after Flash had run off and she  
blew up. Retrieved her body and with some extensive bomb-detonations,  
DNA catalysts, and other stuff that Eiling didn't comprehend well  
enough to explain to her, she was alive.  
Bette couldn't really wrap her mind around the whole Time Masters  
thing, and Savage or the Pilgrim but she chose not to dwell on it.  
After all she could make explosives with everything she touched who  
was she to judge.  
The one thing Eiling made sure to keep were her powers. Unpredictable  
as ever. She had been too dazed and confused to really fight back when  
they brought her into the room.  
The room was large, probably ten feet wide, ten feet in length. All  
white with padded grey walls and a large see-through window spanning  
the front next to the door.  
They put her in the middle of the room. Strapped her to two chains  
hanging from ceiling into a elevated T or crucification-position. It  
prevented her from being able to move her hands around to touch the  
chains on her wrists or touch anyone/thing else.  
She was hanging with no firm grip on the ground and she teetered on  
the toes of her boots. Preventing her from getting enough leverage to  
make a proper kick or at least that would make an impact.  
She stayed in this position for hours on end, her back straining and  
arms aching from being stretched as her body longed to touch the  
ground. They wouldn't even let her eat with her hands, they spoon-fed  
her and gave her water. She was only unstrapped to go to the bathroom.  
Which was a toilet and sink located at the upper right corner of the  
room. She was thankful that no perved had decided to look but it was

still degrading. Treated like a wild animal, and going without the privacy of a stall.

Eiling was determined as ever to make her into a weapon, and he hadn't  
let up his threat that he would force her. Every day she would be  
tazed, hit, kicked, and water boarded.  
This wasn't new for her, she had dealt with this while she had been  
serving on the Gulf Cost. Interrogation techniques and pain and she  
had become immune to most of them. She took comfort with the fact that  
they wanted her alive to be their living weapon so as she gasped and  
panicked for breath as the water bag placed over her head, suffocating  
her. She remembered they wouldn't go that far.  
Although sometimes she wanted to give in, such as the nights they  
tried the sleep deprivation tactic, brights lights, loud noises, cold  
water splashed over her every time she was about to nod off. What  
would happen if she said yes? Maybe they would finally unstrapped  
her? Maybe they would let her go into a regular room and sleep for  
once and maybe get a home and call me and special missions? I  
could finally know what the date is? Those thoughts were quickly  
pushed out when she reminded herself that as a living weapon, they  
wouldn't see her as a person. ONly a fighting machine. They wouldn't  
let her go back to her old life nor help her control her powers. It  
wasn't worth losing her humanity and independence to fight enemies if  
she didn't get a say in it. She had joined the army to fight for the  
American way, but fighting for the government. She had a feeling  
fighting solely for the government might be killing more than  
terrorists but more anyone who tried to fight against it's precious  
leaders. Her stubbornness kicked in and she used all her will and  
tactics she learned at training to refuse.  
"One thing different in this scenario" Bette snorted to herself  
"There's no army to come looking for me. No one even knows I'm alive."  
The crash sounded again, along with Eiling shouting and Bette  
curiously looked up.  
She saw a red blur rush through the facility and Bette gasped. The  
familiar red blur, who had tried to help her all those days, possibly  
months ago.  
He had honestly tried to help her with her powers, and one of the only  
ones who didn't look at her with absolute fear when he found out about  
her powers.  
Flash looked through the window at her. He knocked Eiling's head  
against the glass and kicked open the door.  
"Flash" she whispered, horsely. She jingled the chains uselessly and  
cringed as her torso recoiled in pain.

"Bette you're alive" Flash asked incredulous  
"Clearly" Bette snapped, Flash unsnapped the chain and she fell to the ground.  
"Let me help.." Flash reached for her hand  
"Don't touch me" she hissed, scorching away from him "I can handle myself"  
She gripped her hands tightly, making sure not touch the floor, and  
pulled herself up by her elbows. Then promptly felt a searing pain in  
her ribs and buckled to the floor.  
"Bette, we need you to get you out of here. You can't walk." Flash  
insisted as she crawled on her elbows and knees to the door.  
"I don't have gloves on. I don't want to hurt you." Bette hissed  
"I can handle this, come on" he tried to reached under arm and  
attempted to get her to standing position but she kept squirming out  
of his grasp.  
"Trust me." The speedster said with urgency  
Bette looked at him, and relaxed her muscles. If anyone would get her  
out of this. He would.  
She offered him her wrist. He took it and took her to the outside  
world in a woosh of air.  
-

She found out it was 2016, she had spent two years in that place and  
has sustained from 7 cracked ribs, a severe concussion, a slight fear  
of water, broken ankle and dislocated knee cap.  
There had been other people kept captive at the place, but she had  
been the only one to stick around with Team Flash.  
Caitlin offered her a new set of gloves and although she couldn't  
participate in missions until she was healed, she helped out the Labs  
with random jobs and surveillance.  
It had been quite dull, but once she was fully healed from her  
injuries, Cisco suggested as a professional trained solider, that she  
could teach them to fight better.  
She had been training them but Caitlin and Cisco soon ducked out after  
the first session, claiming that their expertise lied behind the  
computer screen and they rather be able to sit on their chairs without  
sore butts.  
Barry, she learned his name was, continue to train with her since he  
was the one doing most of the fighting. She had to admit, despite some  
posture and technique problems since he depended on his speed, but he  
had the basic skills down and the superspeed reflexes helped him a  
lot.  
"Okay Bette, stop I'm woah" he ducked her roundhouse kick "I'm done."  
"It's only been 20 minutes" Bette protested, taking another head-butt  
at him. It felt so good to be exercising again.  
"Can you let it up a little?" Barry asked  
"Do you think Zoom would let it up a little?" She elbowed him in the shoulder  
"Fine" He panted, and aimed another upper cut at her.  
It would have been an easy block, but she hesitated and he sent flat  
on the ground.  
"What happened there, bombshell" Barry asked as she got up. She  
smirked, Barry had started to nickname her Bombshell after she  
explained that one of her best talents in the army was as a bomb  
detonator.  
"Nothing. I mean.. I would have blocked it, but you know...hands. I'm  
so used to touching myself" she cringed "Sorry that sounded so wrong."  
"Well you have your gloves now. So come on throw something at me. Punch"  
"I'm okay, really." Bette wiped her pants  
"Oh come on punch me. You've got to get use to touching things again,  
so try to hit me." Barry insisted  
"It's fine, I'll stick to kicking."  
"Bette" Barry whined, exaggeratedly "Punch me. It's not hard. I won't  
even defend myself. See" he clasped his hands behind his back  
"Even more of a reason not to" Bette protested with the image of his  
head exploding into a thousand little pieces.

"But I'm use to it. It'll be fine. People punched me lots of times" He  
grabbed her wrist, and attempted to squash it against his face  
"Then have them do it. I'm not going to" She pulled her hands back  
"You can't fight without punching people" Barry chided, shoving her backwards  
"Really? Because I was beating your ass two seconds ago" Bette  
snorted, dogging another swipe at her. She tried to flip his legs with  
her own when he grabbed hers midway and threw her over.  
"Oh look who's beating your ass now" Barry taunted, as she tried to up  
kick him again, once more with the same results and again.  
"Damn Bette, keep fighting like this and we'll have your butt imprint  
on the floor" Bette growled in frustration  
He kept knocking her over and circling around her with his damn  
superspeed until she finally snapped and sent a smooth undercut to his  
jaw.  
He fell to the floor with a thud, Bette bend down to his side  
"Oh my god, Barry I'm sorry. I didn't mean to do it so hard"  
"You did it" he cheered with such a happy grin that Bette had to laugh  
"Great job" He reached for a high five  
"'Another time" Bette glanced wearily at his hand and cracked her knuckles  
-

Eight weeks later, Barry had taken to what he called Operation Touchy  
and Bette sincerely wished he would choose a new name. Ever since the  
punching incident he felt that she had to get acquainted with physical  
contact again and every week, after training he would "introduce" her  
to a new sense of touch. After punching, it had been slapping, after  
that it had been handshakes. It was sort of ridiculous and unneeded if  
you asked her but he kept trying.  
There was another factor too. The more time she spent with him, the  
more she came to admire him. She didn't want to admit it, but she was  
starting to get a small crush. At first she had tried to convince  
herself it was a misplaced feeling and that she only was  
grateful for helping her, no love whatsoever. Besides he was dating  
Patti, she was not that kind of girl to ruin someone's relationship.  
He would be better off with Patti, she was as normal and awkward as he  
was. They were perfect together.  
But then they started to get to know each other. That was one way not  
to get over someone. He started to tell her about his mother and how  
he had come to live with the Wests. He talked about his bio-engineer  
dreams, and school and how he used to get bullied when he was younger.  
He also introduced her to some of his favorite shows, and after he  
found out she had no idea who Dan and Phil where they spent the entire  
afternoon looking up videos. He would send an occasional but very  
energetic email, saying "THEY POSTED A NEW ONE? IT'S HILARIOUS GO  
LOOK? ﾟﾘﾃ? LOL FUNNY!"  
She admired his optimism very much, she never met anyone so happy, and  
it brightened her day to hear him crack a joke in midst pressure. One  
time he had sent a Dubsmash of him dancing to Gangam Style/Harlem  
Shake/Whip n Nae Nae and she almost collapsed on the floor, laughing.  
She had never seen anything like a grown male attempting whip Gangam  
style then do the worm and trip over a bowl of popcorn.  
Today he "introduced" her to poking. Which she was pretty sure just an  
excuse for him to annoy her.  
Afterwards he invited her to watch Mean Girls at the Lab because Patti  
was working a night shift.  
"Isn't this a chick flick?" Bette asked as he placed a bowl of popcorn  
on the desktop.  
"Well, yeah but it's written by Tina Fey!" She looked at him blankly  
"And stars Lindsey Lohan" he added like those two names would be an  
obvious answer to why a PG-13 move from the early 200s would be so  
awesome.  
"Watch and you'll understand" He sat on the rolling chair beside  
her and accidentally knocked his knee against hers. An act that  
shouldn't have been so electrifying for her but it was. She blushed and grabbed a handful of popcorn.

Bette felt a little disappointed that he didn't seem to have noticed  
their knees touching but she hissed at herself, "Patty Patty Patty  
Patti"  
"What was that?" He asked her  
"Nothing" Bette chirped, and blushed again.  
Eventually she fell asleep at some part about a Halloween party and  
she thrashed restlessly. She had been having nightmares ever since she  
got her powers, usually world-about-to-end-all-thanks-to-her-types but  
sometimes she had general ones of fallen friends as their body parts  
were sent flying fifty feet in the air or when they were beheaded and  
militated by the Taliban. Currently it was a flashback to being water  
boarded, over but this time Eiling wasn't letting up. She felt the  
burn of his bullet going into her chest.  
"Wake up!" A disembodied voice called and she woke up. Barry was  
holding her by the shoulders and shaking her awake.  
"Are you okay? You were about to fall off your chair."  
"Uh yeah, a nightmare. Regular PTSD stuff, ignore me." Bette  
waved him off and tried to settle herself back into a comfortable  
position.  
"Do you want to talk about it?" He asked  
"No. I'd rather not, I, Eiling that..um. Death hurts nothing much  
you can say about that"  
"Right, I get it" Barry nodded sagely. He reached his arms around her  
and she stiffened, unsure what to do.  
"Now this is called hugging" Barry said, soothingly, stroking her  
hair. She felt her heart flutter a bit as his warm chest rested  
against hers, with his soft even breathing.  
Slowly she put her hands around his back and rested her chin in the  
crook of his neck. He was so warm and so soft.  
But like all things it had to end, and Bette wanted to slow the rapid  
flutterings in her stomach. "It meant nothing, just friend hugging a  
friend. He has a lovely girlfriend of his own who deserves him" she  
thought to herself  
But "I think I like hugging the best so far" she added shyly  
Barry grinned, "Me too, it's a lot less painful than slapping."  
-

She had been about to leave S.T.A.R. Labs after Barry had returned  
from saving the subway when she spotted him, sitting melancholy on the  
patient table.  
"Hey Barry, are you okay?" She asked him softly  
He sat silent.  
"Did someone die? Do you want to talk about it?" She asked  
"Patti" he sighed deeply.  
It had been a month since Patti broke up with him, but he still had  
hurt feelings. She couldn't blame him, he had been over the moon with  
her but all the secret keeping and lies took a toll. Despite her  
feelings she hadn't want them to break up because of it. She actually  
encouraged him to tell her but it all came too late.  
"Sometimes I feel like, I won't be enough for anyone. I'm too  
secretive. My intelligence scares them off. I'm too much like one of  
the girls. I've always been friend-zoned." Bette frowned, he must not  
only be talking about Patti,Iris was in this too.  
"And then, I always make such lame excuses and jokes." This was more  
than the break-up, this was his whole self-esteem in the balance.  
"Every time I try to find someone, I do but I end up losing them or  
endangering all the rest of the female population finds me  
utterly disgusting!"  
Bette couldn't stand to see him like this. He resembled a symbol of  
hope and life to almost everyone in Central City, and although he  
couldn't save everyone he tried. He cared and he should know this.  
"Barry, I want you to listen to me. Although it feels like it. You  
can't hold all the faults of the relationship on your shoulders. It's  
a relationship, a bond between TWO people. So for every mistake you  
made she made one too, it's not entirely one. Furthermore you're an  
amazing person Barry Allen. You have more sense of fairness and  
justice in you than most people have in their pinkie. You want a fair  
trial, and you always put 110% in what you do. Believe me, people  
appreciate that. And in terms of people you care about. Barry you are  
the sweetest being in the universe. You cheer people up, you reason  
and sympathize with their troubles. What woman wouldn't love that  
about you. Know what else they would love about you, let's review" she  
started counting off her fingers  
"Singing voice is angelic, body 12 out of a scale of ten, your  
intelligence is outstanding and there is nothing cuter than when you  
start talking about what you love, you put your friends before your  
self and that's always very admirable, and most importantly you never  
stop being you. Which is what every girl looks for. That's true  
honesty."

Barry looked at her, mouth agape. "You're talking about me?"  
"Of course I am"  
And for once, Bette didn't think about her hands or touching or  
anything else in the world. She only saw him and all the traits she  
had described. The incredibly smart, geeky man who saved the world on  
a daily basis. The man who had helped her in the darkest time and  
always looked at her with a smile.  
She pulled his head closer to hers, gently caressing his cheek as she  
stared into his piercing brown eyes, and kissed him.  
She pulled back, looking at his face for his reaction  
"Thanks for what you said" Barry said, looking away  
Bette felt her heart dropped down to the floor, he didn't feel the  
same way, this was so embarrassing. Even if she had been gone for two  
years she doubted that people suddenly kissed to cheer friends up. She  
moved to leave.  
"Now may introduce you to French kissing" he asked  
Bette turned back to him, and saw his eyes shining  
"Yes" She pulled him closer, and fell into a tight, comforting embrace.


End file.
